As homeschool parents, we believe we are responsible and accountable for the education we provide our children. We want our kids to grow up to be critical and active citizens. We want them to be productive; an asset to the community rather than a drain. The question is, "To whom are we accountable?"

To the Guam Public School System? They don't need the extra work of policing homeschoolers. They have enough to do, and many of us feel they could be doing a better job of it. They have thousands of at-risk kids to look after; they do not need to worry about a few dozen homeschoolers.

We personally feel like we should answer to our neighbors (by that I mean our community at large). Also to God, as He entrusts us with these children and expects us to practice good stewardship. And to our country. We are very glad to live in the USA, where we daily practice freedoms that millions of others can only dream about. And we do not want to take advantage of it by raising illiterate hillbillies. Why would we want to? And who, if given the opportunity to raise uneducated bumpkins, would want to do so?

I just wish my neighbors (in the figurative sense), and the school system and the politicians would take all of this as seriously as we do; that they would ponder the possibility that they should consider themselves to be accountable to me just as I consider myself accountable to them. Why should this accountability only go in one direction? While the majority of our neighbors send their kids to school for free lunches and expect the teachers to educate their kids without any support from the home front, while the politicians argue and squabble like children in a sandbox (except they control millions of dollars instead of sand), and the school officials try to convince us they are indispensable by using big words and experimenting with educational methods as if they haven't had over 100 years to collectively get it right...our kids are just learning and learning (like all kids like to do if nobody manages to destroy their love of learning by coercive methodology), and we ask nothing but to be left alone.

Wanna talk to the homeschool community about accountability? Make sure your own house in order first.